DC unhappy over gap to Ferrari

The Scot snapped after he was outperformed by the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, and Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Honda in both of this morning's free practice sessions.

DC managed to out pace his double world champion team mate Mika Hakkinen, who finished in sixth place, on his way to grabbing fourth spot, but was three-tenths slower than third-placed Schumacher. Now he says McLaren face a long night and hard work to make up the ground.

"I am not happy. The balance is not good and we've lot of work to do," said Coulthard. "It's not one part of the track, the whole track is the issue for us. I don't think we are going to make the car the quickest around this weekend, but we have got to maximise what we have got to get some points.

"The car is not enough. What matters is [qualifying on] Saturday but I do expect them [Ferrari] to be quicker than us - the only question is what the gap will be."

Coulthard finished second to Schumacher in Australia two weeks ago and holds the same position in the championship behind the German. He will be keen to notch up another good finish this weekend, in order to stay close to Schuey while maintaining his lead over Hakkinen, who crashed out with suspension failure in Melbourne.